The Goings On These Days

Meg is up at 5:30am and I doze to the sounds of the shower and the traffic outside for a few minutes more. I try to tell myself "it is like waves lapping at a shore" until the radio comes on at 6:15am tuned to CBC's "Music and Company." My turn in the shower. Scarf some breakfast. Usually a slice of toast, maybe some hot cereal this time of year, coffee will have to wait. Somewhere between 7:05am and 7:15am we're out the door. Pretty much everyday I say to myself "I hate driving." I drop Meg off at Stratford Hall School sometime between 7:20am and 7:35am depending on traffic. I then thank "my lucky stars" (where did that phrase come from again?) that the commute is almost over. Every 23 minutes a new driver is added to the Vancouver area. I head back to Main Street, sometimes stopping for a coffee at Calabria Caffé on Commercial Drive (and a chat about pregnancy and visual effects with The G), but mostly just head into the studio to get a start on the day. Working too much, yes, thank you or asking. Check my renders. Swear. The morning goes by in semi-hallucinatory haze of moving images and caffeine. The Gollum-like animal squirming in my gut indicates that I have yet again "forgotten the necessary fuel for this habit." So, I scramble for something to eat. Luckily there's lots close by... and I love this neighbourhood for it. Sometimes I head to Bucket's place to hear him play The Strokes on his guitar. Noodles on Main Street occasionally, but usually a sandwich at Terra Breads. By 2:00pm it is heads down again as I can feel the day slipping past me just as quickly as it came. 6:30pm comes far too quickly aided no doubt by a couple more coffees. Rushing off to get Meg who has completed yet another Herculean effort at the school and is starving. About half the time, we eat out somewhere between the school and home, or at her parents, and if we have time and the forethought (to say nothing of luck), we eat at home. If I am even luckier, I have wine. After dinner, depending on how the day has gone I am either relaxing at home, and trying to keep some semblance of order, or rushing off to the studio again for a couple more hours of work before my eyes start to bleed (proving once again that living close to the studio is not an option, it is a method of survival). After I have successfully set fire to "both ends" I head home, and to bed for a few pages of my book. Meg is already a piece of comma toast, and I say to myself "hang in there." I fall asleep with the lights on wondering when I will find the time to ride my bike.